alex/what-happens-when on Hacker News

Also see this classic: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when "What happens when you type google.com into your browser's address box and press enter?"

comment by gregsadetsky · 2026-08-03 · in 200 Milliseconds

…they had better candidates. When I interviewed at Google (back in 2014), I was asked the classic https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when question. I didn't know it was a common question, and hadn't specifically prepared for it.…

comment by rahimnathwani · 2025-09-03 · in You're Not Interviewing for the Job. You're Auditioning for the Job Title

…have the paint drips or you don’t. And if you don’t, maybe this question sparks your first one. https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when This question is well known and people do indeed prepare for it.

comment by bitlax · 2025-07-18 · in The Interview Question That Tells Me Everything

For a relatively in-depth take on this question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by mburns · 2025-02-21 · in How browsers really load web pages [video]

he hasn't merged a PR in 3 years but https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by etc-hosts · 2025-02-20 · in How browsers really load web pages [video]

Agreed! It reminds me of: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when and how many of today’s CS-degree holders would barely understand any of it. As someone who has also “grown up with all the technology”, I’ve learned and experienced all…

comment by eddyg · 2023-10-21 · in We have used too many levels of abstractions

This is a popular question, turns out. https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by kranner · 2023-05-11 · in My friends who cheated in interviews are getting promoted (2022)

…about API services and DBs to differentiate it from the usual answer. It is indeed a fun question! https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by fancyfish · 2023-04-13 · in On a great interview question

https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by jwilk · 2023-04-10 · in Getting the ^D

Related: Also look at https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by rounakdatta · 2023-03-20 · in Ask HN: Where can I find a primer on how computers boot?

Haha! The post was actually motivated by a common (interview) question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when . We thought it would make for a fun adaptation for the terminal world

comment by szgupta · 2023-01-11 · in What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’

…important? Entropy? Hashing? Buffer overflow? SQL Injection? How much of this do you understand? https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when > I love my own original interpretation of CS foundations and concepts. You take this as a point of…

comment by hayst4ck · 2022-12-20 · in Ask HN: Do you need a CS certificate to work in programming field?

"What happens when you type google.com into your browser's address box and press enter?" https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by misterioss · 2021-06-07 · in Ask HN: Best way to learn networking fundamentals quickly

Not quite what you asked, but you may find this interesting: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by ominous · 2020-10-08 · in Ask HN: How many operations happen when I open Facebook?

…into a browser and hit enter?” Wow, I had no idea who came up with that question first. (see, e.g., https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when ). When was the first time it was asked? Where?

comment by mherdeg · 2019-09-27 · in How Firebase Interviewed Software Engineers

Another similar context: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8902105 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9189096

comment by MrXOR · 2019-06-15 · in What happens behind the scenes when we type www.google.com in a browser? (2015)

…question of what happens when you type google.com into a webbrowser and press enter [1] [1] https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by pi-squared · 2019-06-06 · in What happens when you type curiousbun.ch and press Enter?

…when you type google.com in your browser and hit enter?"[0] Well, a lot... where do you start? [0] https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by 0x0000000 · 2019-04-09 · in B Before A

See https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by caspar · 2019-02-19 · in Harder programming questions do a worse job of predicting outcomes

…you type google.com into your browser and press enter?" (Answer in as much depth as you like.)" https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by meddlin · 2019-01-16 · in The Antisocial Laptop

there's at least one collaboratively edited doc about this standard interview Q; see https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by mherdeg · 2018-08-28 · in A collection of sysadmin test questions and answers for interviews/exams

…index.html is retrieved (/while it is being retrieved). This is my favourite intro to the subject: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when/blob/master/README...

comment by Piskvorrr · 2018-02-19 · in What happens when you type an URL in the browser and press enter?

…would play a composition on the white board. I always thought that this is a good question to ask https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when but then again probably not for all roles. It's good because even if the interviewee has seen the…

comment by adamnemecek · 2018-01-15 · in Stanford CS9: Problem-Solving for the CS Technical Interview

…most candidates who have done a few minutes of googling can give you the "right" answer. See here: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when/blob/master/README... I'd probably start here to lighten up the mood due to how cliche the…

comment by autotune · 2017-04-09 · in The Utter Uselessness of Job Interviews

a link in this thread https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by redindian75 · 2017-03-04 · in What happens when you swipe a credit card

kinda like https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by neduma · 2017-03-04 · in What happens when you swipe a credit card

…ipad for all the computing you do, and expect things to just work. See: a typical everyday usecase: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when Did the user write "oogle.com" instead of google, and got malware? ....Inexcusable, as you said?…

comment by ominous · 2016-10-29 · in Total Nightmare: USB-C and Thunderbolt 3

…HN almost two years ago: “What happens when you type Google.com into your browser and press enter?” https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when Would love to see Knuth's Challenge setup in a repo for collaboration. HN Discussion on the above…

comment by ideonexus · 2016-09-30 · in Knuth's Challenge: Analyze everything your computer does in one second

https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when also great

comment by joshmn · 2016-09-07 · in Ask HN: What are your favorite articles/blog posts of all time?

…to have a click initiate another click or two more clicks? Where do you draw the line? [1]: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by mholt · 2016-07-09 · in Post Ghost Shutdown: An Open Letter to Twitter

Open issue for NSA deep packet inspection. No skipping! https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when/issues/34

comment by hatty · 2016-05-20 · in What happens when you type Google.com into your browser and press enter?

https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by kragniz · 2016-04-27 · in Hiring Is Broken – My interview experience in the tech industry

…google.com into my browser". I asked them where they had gotten idea from and showed them this: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when . They decided ask me another question soon after. Sometimes the questions aren't even related to…

comment by truetuna · 2016-04-27 · in Hiring Is Broken – My interview experience in the tech industry

https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when#the-g-key-is-press...

comment by V-2 · 2016-04-02 · in I’m a boring programmer (and proud of it)

I like this version: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when It doesn't address the 'progressive layers' issue, but it _does_ include a TOC. I have been asked this question before, and my answer was definitely biased towards the…

comment by rahimnathwani · 2015-10-12 · in How the Internet works

…question ""What happens when you type google.com into your browser's address box and press enter?"" https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by bgurupra · 2015-07-15 · in Ask HN: How, bottom to top, does a modern web application work?

also relevant (found here on HN last month) what happens when you... https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by BorisMelnik · 2015-04-26 · in What happens when you hit Ctrl-C?

…I'm well aware I couldn't reproduce or accurately describe the whole system/process on my own. [1] https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

comment by Riseed · 2015-04-14 · in Political Extremism Is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding (2013) [pdf]

…excuse to try to remember how Windows actually handled keyboard input. I submitted a pull request: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when/pull/21

comment by cek · 2015-01-17 · in “What happens when you type Google.com into your browser and press enter?”